In this issue of TechNet Magazine, we are taking an in-depth look at two key products that our readers use at work every day: SQL Server and Exchange Server. Even the smallest companies need to store and track data, and you’d be hard-pressed to find an organization that doesn’t use messaging as a vital part of its daily business.Joshua Trupin

As a systems administrator you’re surely no stranger to Windows®Management Instrumentation (WMI), which gives you access to a wealth of management information and allows you to automate administrative tasks.Chris Scoville

In the last issue, I discussed SMTP, the most common protocol for sending e-mail across the Internet. Now I’d like to discuss the other Internet protocol that almost all mail clients support: POP3, which lets users access the e-mail on their mail server.R'ykandar Korra'ti

With the soon-to-be released next version of Microsoft® Office (currently code-named "Office 12"), there will be new default file formats for Microsoft Word, PowerPoint®, and Excel®. These new formats, called the Microsoft Office Open XML Formats, will open up a whole new world to Office developers.Brian Jones

Greetings, everyone. In one of their classic Halloween episodes, the Simpsons became rich and famous. Their faces were everywhere: on billboards, on T-shirts, you name it. Not too surprisingly the people of Springfield quickly tired of seeing the Simpsons everywhere they looked.The Microsoft Scripting Guys

I’ve fielded a lot of questions recently about how to manage the built-in administrator account. I am referring specifically to BUILTIN\Administrator, also known as NT AUTHORITY\Administrator, the account with relative identifier (RID) 500.Jesper Johansson

One of the best improvements in IIS 6. 0 over earlier versions was the introduction of Application Pools (often called App Pools for short). When IIS 6. 0 is running in Worker Process Isolation Mode (the default in a new installation of Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003), every IIS 6.Brett Hill

While security is essential in today’s network, unfortunately some administrators think they are secure if they just have a good firewall. Various studies suggest that up to 65 percent of all network compromises happen from inside the firewall.Richard Civil

It’s almost impossible to read the news these days without running into a piece about computer security, compromised personal information, and bills written to protect consumer rights. Confidential information being inappropriately accessed and used is not a new problem.Don McGowan

For many years, one of the biggest challenges faced by the Microsoft. com Web site engineers was the virtual memory limitations of the 32-bit operating system. With hundreds of different applications running on the site, there was often contention for the 2GB address limit that the front-end Web servers had to deal with.Chris St. Amand

I have been mucking with computers since I was in the 5th grade. I built microcomputers on breadboards, wrote assembler programs, manually linked network drivers, assembled computers from piles of boxes—all those really old school techie things.Mark Scott

It is fascinating to watch the ecosystem grow up around market-leading products. A walk through any computer hardware or software section highlights the fantastic variety of products built upon and for the Windows® platform.Graeme Bennett

Windows isn’t as open as it used to be. In the earlier, simpler days, Windows® was designed in a more trusting manner. Internal file formats were documented, and programs could manipulate the system in a wide variety of ways.Raymond Chen